District 9 director Neill Blomkamp has faced criticism after releasing a 13-minute zombie film made entirely using AI.
The filmmaker shared the short, titled Nightborne, on YouTube over the weekend, describing it as the first “full test AI film” he has made.
Presented in the style of a documentary, it follows a US Army pilot who is shot down and declared dead during a mission in Syria. Her husband buries an empty coffin, but recovered footage reveals that she was enrolled in a classified military programme that uses implants to return dead soldiers to the battlefield.
Check out the short below.
Nightborne is the first release from Barley Studios, a new AI-focused film studio founded by Blomkamp, and according to the video’s description, every frame was generated using ByteDance’s Seedance 2.0 model, with Blomkamp directing the film “shot by shot” through text prompts.
Blomkamp explained on social media that he now intends to use the technology to make a full-length film.
“I’ve been experimenting with AI for a couple of years,” he said, “and it’s now at the point where I want to tackle a full feature in this format. This is a 13-minute test start.
“It was made with real concept artists, and features the faces and voices of 32 real people. Barley Studios will be my new AI studio for creating my own films, the way Oats Studios was for traditional film and VFX.”
Responses to the short have been largely negative, with viewers criticising inconsistencies in the AI-generated visuals, dialogue and disjointed camera movements.
“No thank you. What a crazy fall from grace for such a beloved filmmaker,” one person wrote beneath the YouTube video.
“Wow Neill, thank you for showing us that even in the hands of an established director, AI slop looks indistinguishable from everyone else’s AI slop,” another wrote on X.
Others questioned why the director was working with generative AI instead of pursuing the long-discussed sequel to District 9. “Bro, we just wanted District 10,” one comment read, while another said: “Waited 17 years for District 10, and now this? Come on, man.”
Blomkamp has not yet publicly responded to the criticism.
wow Neill thank you for showing us that even in the hands of an established director AI slop looks indistinguishable from everyone else's AI slop!
— Is this a 3D model? (@IsThisA3DModel) July 20, 2026
Waited 17 years for District 10, and now this? Come on, man.
— Adam Hlaváč (@adamhlavac) July 20, 2026
Released in 2009, District 9 was Blomkamp’s first feature film. It followed a population of extraterrestrial refugees confined to an internment camp in Johannesburg, earning four Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.
Blomkamp confirmed in 2021 that he was writing a sequel with the original film’s star Sharlto Copley and co-writer Terri Tatchell. Speaking to NME that year, he explained that the project had taken so long because he previously saw no compelling reason to return to the story.
“For a decade there never really seemed to be a good reason to make a sequel,” he said. “It just didn’t feel like there was a justifiable reason to go back to that world in a way where there was something to actually say.”
Blomkamp went on to direct Elysium, Chappie, Demonic and Gran Turismo.
Elsewhere, George Lucas recently argued that the adoption of AI in filmmaking is inevitable, comparing resistance to the technology to rejecting cars in favour of horses and carts. “There’s nothing you can do about it,” he said. “That’s progress, it’s the future.”
Conversely, Backrooms director Kane Parsons described AI-generated entertainment as “cultural rot” that “defeats the purpose entirely of creativity”.
Controversial AI creation Tilly Norwood is also set to make its feature debut in the forthcoming AI-generated film Misaligned.
The post ‘District 9’ director Neill Blomkamp criticised over AI zombie movie appeared first on NME.
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